Song of the Thin Man (1947)

Directed by Edward Buzzell. Starring William Powell, Myrna Loy, Patricia Morison, Keenan Wynn, Leon Ames, Jayne Meadows, Ralph Morgan, Phillip Reed, Gloria Grahame, Don Taylor, Bruce Cowling, Dean Stockwell, William Bishop, Warner Anderson.

Last and limpest entry in the Thin Man series has an instantly forgettable mystery at the center, and mostly lukewarm banter shuffling around it. Jazz bandleader Reed gets shot in the back, and one of the prime suspects (Cowling) has to duck bullets of his own, so Powell’s Nick gets to investigating. Loy’s Nora gets a nice assist in the investigation, but even her rapport with Nick feels a little off this time; their kid, Nick Jr. (Stockwell), is dangled briefly into the arena of danger, but it’s practically forgotten by the time the customary gathering-of-suspects finale arrives. Can feel like a chore to sit through at times, so be grateful for the brief running time, and even its pleasures tend to be either fleeting or fun solely for the sake of novelty—look at traditionally stiff drip Taylor go hysterical in a sanitarium. The old magic is never more greatly missed than in the domestic scenes, once a place for squiffy flirtation and wisecracks, now a setting for tedious business that feels lifted out of an old sitcom—just listen to the dinky music during the embarrassingly hokey “corporal punishment” scene. Not even Asta can save this one (the doggy is barely even in it). Grahame’s singing voice was dubbed by Carol Arden.

45/100